Shadow The Fall of Kingpin

The Fall of Kingpin.

Chapter One

"We are in agreement on this Fisk. Do something or we will."

The speakerphone snapped off and Kingpin threw it against the wall. For the last thirty minutes, other crime lords had been chewing him out and questioning his ability to lead his empire.

Rubbing his eyes, he reflected on his opponents. They were just jealous. He knew that. They all wanted his organization and they had spent years watching him like a hawk just waiting for him to slip up. Waiting patiently for some flaw that they could use to push him out of power. And now they had a reason.

Thinking carefully, Kingpin knew that there wasn't much he could have done differently. The Shadow and his partner Spiderman were everywhere at once. And no matter what trap he set, no matter how many guards he posted, no matter what assassin he unleashed on them, they were always one step ahead.

And it was to be expected that some of his overly jealous enemies might join forces to join against him. The war he waged with The Shadow was as fierce as the war he waged with his brothers in crime. But it had been a winning battle, because for every operation The Shadow shut down, The Kingpin managed to set one up in its place, and after it was all said and done he was still turning more of a profit, and casting a wider net than any other crime boss that stood against him.

But today, things had taken a rather painful turn.

Somehow, his rivals had managed to get hold of the records showing the operations that the black-cloaked menace had defeated. How they had done it Kingpin had no idea. He had ordered all the records destroyed, and he was on the watch for moles and opponents in the ranks since he had found one of The Shadow's agents in his tower many months before.

And now they were giving him an ultimatum. Eliminate The Shadow and his partner. Destroy the threat to his empire, or they would combine their forces, and take his empire from him, and slip evidence to the police about his activities.

Kingpin was fairly certain that this was a bluff. But there was just a little bit of doubt. And the doubt worried him.

Right arm, his trusted assistant, entered the room and calmly put the hurled phone back on the desk.

"We have to kill those costumed freaks," announced kingpin. "It's them or us now."

"Boss, we've tried that before," Right Arm said practically. "We don't even know where to find them."

Kingpin slid into silent contemplation for a long moment. "We have numbers on our side. We also have fortifications in this building. In a straight fight, we will win."

"But he's too subtle for that," countered Right Arm.

"So we have to make him as subtle as a brick through a window," Kingpin declared. "We have to make him lose his focus. Make him think more with his emotions than his mind."

"How do we do that?"

Kingpin brought up his own records of The Shadow and studied it for a very long time. Then he smiled. "A man like that allows himself to rely on very few people, and trusts fewer still. Those he does implicitly trust are like family to him. They are his weak point. We find the weak link in his chain, and we start cutting."

He pointed at the picture of The Shadow with a savage grin.

"We start cutting THERE!"

Right Arm looked, followed the pointing Kingpin's finger.

He was pointing at The Shadow's girasol ring.

The kingpin pushed a button on his armrest. "Send in Kagan."

Chapter Two

Stephen Cranston lay back on a lounge in his condo, and sighed. "Long day." He threw the ball in his hand straight up above him.

Mirroring his pose on the ceiling, Peter Parker caught it as it came up. "Long boring day."

Stephen caught the ball as his partner dropped it down. "City's quiet lately."

"And we are officially the two weirdest workaholics in history," Peter commented as the ball came back up.

"Yep," Stephen answered.

Just then the phone rang.

Without looking, Stephen reached over to a nearby table and tossed the cordless phone up to his partner. "It's for you."

Peter caught the ringing handset. "How do you know that?"

"I know," Stephen said, as bored as ever.

Peter answered the phone. "Hello? Wh...Hi! No not a lot right now, things are disturbingly quiet. What? Really? Sure, I'd love to. Say around seven? Great. See you then. Bye."

Stephen may have displayed a slight smile, but it was hard to tell.

Peter hung up and jumped lightly to the floor. "That was Mary Jane!"

Stephen nodded. "I recommend the veal. The Cobalt Club makes it great."

Peter gave him a suspicious look. "Why do I get the distinct impression that you had a hand in this?"

Stephen shrugged. "I may have suggested that some time off was rare for you, and that she may wish to take advantage of it."

"Stephen..."

"Peter!" Stephen interrupted sharply. "Love is so hard to find in lives like ours. Don't turn it down when it calls you by name."

Peter regarded his friend for a moment, and considered his words. Suddenly he had an enormous grin. "I have a date tonight with Mary Jane Watson!"

Stephen laughed as Peter bounced out of the apartment giddily.

***

A woman got out of her car and walked up the steps to her home. She got to the door, unlocked it. She heard a sharp click as the door opened...

Five minutes later, the fire department fought the flames left by the blast.

***

Peter knocked on Mary Jane's door.

She answered it quickly.

"Wow," Peter blurted when he saw her dress.

Mary Jane laughed. "Just the reaction I was hoping for." She came out into the hallway and pulled her apartment door shut.

"Wow," Peter said again as she passed him.

"Peter?"

Peter snapped out of it. "Right. Shall we go?"

***

A man walked home from work, whistling as he went.

He never saw the gleaming knife in the hand of the man following.

***

"All right, are you going to tell me how he knew?" Peter asked.

"What?" Mary Jane asked in confusion.

"You called his apartment, he knew it was for me before he answered, he gave me menu advice before I told him what it was about. How long have you two been scheming this?"

Mary Jane laughed. "He called me early this morning and told me that you were having time off today, things were slow. I didn't miss the implications of that and asked him if he could suggest a good restaurant. He didn't trick me into having dinner with you if that's what you mean."

Peter smiled. "No. My partner the matchmaker."

"He means well."

"I know." Peter sighed. "I just get the feeling sometimes like he doesn't need a partner. Quite frankly I don't think he trusts anyone enough."

"Be careful what you wish for, Peter. One of these days he may call on you for something that only you can do."

"And when that day comes I'll no doubt hate the idea, and complain and moan."

"Right."

"That is a stunning dress."

Mary Jane blushed. "I've never been to The Cobalt Club Before. Do they have a dress code?"

"None that you'll be breaking."

"Oh, good. Have you ever eaten there before?"

"Several times. Stephen has that place eating out of his hand. By the way, he suggested the Veal."

"Now that's scary," Mary Jane commented. "I was just thinking about that when I hung up."

***

Doctor Chance LeBrue sat behind his desk, filling out paperwork for some of the new entrants to the morgue. The final task was to check their personal effects.

What he saw made him gasp.

Eight bodies, from eight different parts of the city, all had one terrifying similarity.

They were all wearing girasol rings.

***

Burbank collected the newest report from the field and looked it over.

Gasping suddenly, Burbank felt very much afraid.

***

Stephen's ring flashed.

"About time," he said aloud. "The city's been silent for almost 24 hours." He gave brief consideration to calling Peter, then shook his head. _No_. _Let him have one night happy with the girl of his dreams. If it's serious, I can call him._

He silently summoned his driver and grabbed his coat.

***

When he got to the cab, Stephen soon noticed the concerned look on his driver's face, as well as the revolver on the seat next to him. "The Sanctum," he said matter-of-factly, then gave Moe a curious look. "Something wrong?"

Moe shook off the unnerved feeling he had. "My last fare before you called pulled a knife on me. Lucky I always keep a gun in my pocket, huh?"

"Can you describe him?" Stephen asked, concerned.

"Brown eyes, blonde hair, light scar above his left eye and I think he was sporting a shoulder holster. He was wearing Armani boss. It's not like he couldn't pay."

"Are you all right?"

"I drive a cab in New York, and the rest of the time I drive around _you_. What could possibly faze me?"

Stephen laughed. "That's true. I'll look into it as soon as I'm done with whatever it is Burbank's calling about."

***

"He wasn't kidding about the veal," Mary Jane noted.

"Nope," Peter smiled serenely. Here he was, in the most exclusive club in town with the most perfect woman in the world. What could possibly make it any better?

Soft Jazz music stuck up suddenly from the band, and several couples began to dance.

__

Thank you for your prompt reply, Peter thought to anyone listening. "Would you like to dance?" he asked Mary Jane.

"I would love to," came the happy answer.

***

Stephen flipped the correct switches on the pane in front of him. "Report."

Burbank's face appeared on the screen. Stephen could swear that the man looked scared.

***

Peter couldn't be happier. The band was playing a slow number, and the two of them on the dance floor were clearly turning heads.

The song ended, and most of the dancers ended with a kiss.

He looked at MJ, who looked back expectantly.

Peter leaned forward.

"Excuse me? Mr. Parker?"

Through an act of superhuman will, Peter refrained from ripping the head off the waiter who had interrupted. "Yes?"

"Phone call for you, sir. I was told to tell you that it was very urgent."

"I wonder who that could be," Mary Jane said sarcastically, still in Peter's arms.

Peter waved the waiter away and stepped back. "I'll be right back. Just hold that thought, whatever the thought was, just hold it for a moment."

Mary Jane giggled as Peter hurried toward the phones.

***

"What the Hell could you possibly want?" Peter snapped into the phone before even asking who it was.

"And a pleasant good evening to you, too," Stephen answered. "Do you always treat the callers on the other end of the line this way?"

"Only if I know they're you. Who else could possibly have the most breathtakingly inconvenient sense of timing that you have?"

"Sorry to interrupt. Really, I am. You have to get back here right now!"

Peter noticed the urgency in his partner's voice, but was still too angry to be reasonable. "After all you went through to set this up, you have the nerve to-"

"Is MJ still there?" Stephen interrupted suddenly.

"Of course she is, even after you so perfectly destroyed the mood-"

"Good! Bring her with you!" Stephen did not even seem to hear him.

Finally, the tone of Stephen's voice got through. "To the...to your office?"

"Yes."

Peter was silent for a moment. "What's happening?"

"Just get here now! Moe will be by in just a moment. I'll explain when you get here. Don't let MJ out of your sight either, and don't go anywhere else first. Those places may not be safe."

Peter was worried now. "Understood."

"Peter?" Stephen said before he could hang up. "Hide your rings. You know the ones I mean. Both of you."

Peter looked at his fire opal ring, and remembered the matching one on Mary Jane's finger. "O.K., you've officially scared me now. What's going on?"

Stephen was silent for a long second. "It's all gone to Hell, Peter. Heaven help us all."

***

Mary Jane watched as Peter walked back toward their table quickly. "Come on," he said urgently.

"Come on?" Mary Jane repeated, confused.

"Something's happened. Something terrible, and Stephen says to hide the fire opals. Now you know everything I do."

Startled, Mary Jane jumped up and followed Peter to the exit. Both of them pulled off their rings as they moved.

Peter looked down at his hand, surprised how it felt without the ring. Yes. Something bad had happened.

Chapter Three.

Sure enough, Moe's cab pulled up just as the pair arrived on the doorstep.

"Moe, what's going on?" Mary Jane asked as they drove away.

"I don't know." Moe asked in concern. "He just told me to come get you guys and take you to the sanctum, and to take off my ring."

"He told us the same thing." Peter reported. "This cannot be a good thing."

Mary Jane leaned over. "The Sanctum?"

Peter groaned in the realization that he needed to clue MJ in on a few things before they got there. "Oh, of course, you haven't been there. The Sanctum is The Shadow's base. It's his command center. Has been for seventy years. And very few people have seen it and lived."

"If he's just decided to let me come," Mary Jane rationalized, "then something particularly unexpected has happened."

Soon enough, the cab arrived at the alleyway.

Peter took Mary Jane's hand and led the way down the alley, listening to his spider sense and watching everything at once.

"What now?" whispered Mary Jane as they reached the end of the alleyway.

"Don't look," Peter whispered.

Mary Jane nodded and looked away. There was a loud clanking noise. Then several metallic clicks.

"O.K.," said Peter, and Mary Jane turned to see a doorway retracted into the wall.

"Very well hidden," she commented as she descended into the darkness. "Awfully dark down here."

**__**

"There'll be light soon, just follow the stairs."

Mary Jane jumped at the sound of The Shadow's voice, but followed the winding staircase down.

Suddenly revealed to her was the plush octagonal shaped room. She looked around at the dark paneling and the luxurious leather couches. It was very well decorated and had calming light levels, and even a fire roaring in a fireplace. Against one wall were some of the most advanced technology and computers she had ever seen. "It's beautiful!" she said approvingly.

"**_Glad you like it._**"

Mary Jane looked around quickly for the voice, and then noticed the huge chair at the console swivel around to reveal Stephen Cranston.

"Have a seat," Stephen said, gesturing across the Sanctum toward the sitting area.

Peter and Mary Jane sat on a leather couch, facing the master of the Sanctum.

"Exactly 8 minutes ago," he reported, "Burbank, reported to me that eleven agents have been murdered in the last 4 hours."

Mary Jane and Peter both gasped.

"That can't be coincidence." Mary Jane blurted.

"Any sign of who did it?" Peter asked.

"Not exactly. My agent in Kingpin's tower has not responded to messages. A few agents in other organizations have reported that other crime families have given Fisk an ultimatum. Kill us or be removed from power." He paused. "The only other option is that we have an insider."

"What? Impossible!" Mary Jane shouted instantly.

Peter and Stephen shared a look.

"Not impossible," Peter said finally. "Unfortunately."

Mary Jane looked at Peter in shock.

"In any case, I don't think that's it," Stephen said. "The ultimatum to Kingpin goes to motive. And he does know about our rings."

Peter nodded. "So…what do we do?"

Stephen gave them both a hard look. "Get pushed, push back. This madness is going to stop. If Kingpin wants to declare war on us, then we might as well take the war to him."

Peter stood up, feeling adrenaline flood his limbs. "Are you suggesting what I think you are?"

"I think…it's time," Stephen confirmed.

Peter laughed wildly. "Oh, I have been waiting for this, I have."

"Waiting for what?" MJ asked.

"We are going to take that man down," Stephen declared. "Now I just have to figure out how."

Peter stopped dancing. "You don't know how?"

"Not yet. Kingpin's smart. He's buttoned up that place tight, there's absolutely no information coming out now." He paused. "In any case, that's my second problem. The first is to keep the rest of my agents alive!"

"Do you have any plan on how to do that?" Mary Jane asked.

Stephen stood and crossed to the bar, poured himself a drink, then came back to his console and sat down. "This will be tricky. But if it works…" Stephen gestured for silence and flipped on the console. "Burbank."

Burbank's face appeared on the screen. "Yes?"

"Burbank, it seems that we may have a breach."

Burbank nodded. "Internal or external?"

"For now I'm saying external. Listen carefully, these may be some of the most important commands you ever get."

"Yes, sir."

***

Burbank listened attentively.

"Burbank, feel behind your console."

Burbank did, and felt something unusual on the smooth metal surface.

"On there you should find a key taped to the back," The Shadow's voice continued. "Pull that away."

Burbank pulled loose the key. It was an old brass key.

"Now take that key," the instructions continued. "And go over to the small wardrobe in that room."

Burbank had a small wardrobe to keep his jacket and other personal effects that he kept with him always.

"The floor of the wardrobe has a hidden compartment. Open it by pulling up the handle in the far left corner of the wardrobe floor."

Burbank followed the directions and found a locked strongbox.

"You should find a box. In that box will be a small stack of envelopes."

Burbank used the key to open the box and found a stack of carefully numbered envelopes that were the same as those used for message sending to agents.

"Now Burbank, we cannot send this through the usual channels, those may be compromised also. You will have to deliver this personally."

"I understand," Burbank said into the microphone.

"The first message goes to Susan Harding. She works at the WNX radio station. Then, send the rest of the envelopes to the primary agents."

"Yes, sir."

"Burbank, Susan Harding will not be wearing a girasol ring. You must seek her out, and to speak to her, you need different code words. You will say, 'Where's a good place to hear the radio,' and she will respond, 'Near Central Park west.' Have you got that? I need this done fast."

"I'm on my way."

The connection cut off.

***

"Primary agents?" Peter asked.

Stephen steepled his fingers and looked thoughtful. "The Shadow has been ready for something like this. Primary agents are a handful of agents that pass on the general dispatches to all agents."

"So what is it with WNX?" Mary Jane asked.

"You'll see in three hours," Stephen said, and then reached into a drawer for a toolbox. "Peter, I need you to go get some things from the manor. Tell Uncle Victor what's happening--he'll need to know."

Peter nodded and looked at Mary Jane. 

Stephen saw it. "She has to stay here. I'll need another person's help to make this work, and it'll be faster to teach her while you get what I need. Time is of the essence."

Peter gave a reluctant nod and hurried out.

Mary Jane waited until she heard the door lock into place, then turned to Stephen. "So what was the real reason you wanted him gone?"

"Oh, I was telling him the truth, but only half of it." He sighed and looked down. "I have to ask you to do something that Peter won't like."

"Oh?"

"You have to get out of town after tonight. Until this is over, or until we find the assassin, whichever comes first; but I want you safe."

MJ scoffed. "Oh, no way."

Stephen raised an eyebrow. Perhaps MJ needed a refresher course in agent rules.

She recognized the look in his eyes and gave him a defiant glare. "I'm an agent too. You don't have to protect me."

Stephen had to admire her guts. But there was much more at stake here than she realized. "MJ, Peter already has several personal reasons for this fight. The one closest to home he doesn't even know about."

"Really?"

"The man that killed his Uncle Ben worked for Kingpin."

Mary Jane went white. "He…doesn't know this?"

Stephen shook his head. "And he must not until the fight is over. On top of that, is you. Kingpin is killing agents. We are _all_ on the hit list. Peter will be so incredibly worried about your safety now. Give us both a little peace of mind."

Mary Jane nodded. "Fine. I'll go. But you have to tell Peter about his uncle when the fight ends."

"I will."

MJ looked at Stephen carefully. "You didn't hide your own ring."

Stephen looked at his girasol. "This was my grandfather's. I would no sooner hide it than hide myself." The power in his eyes was almost palpable. "And The Shadow hides from no one."

MJ couldn't help shaking slightly.

Stephen gave her a disarming smile. "Thanks for noticing."

MJ gave him a sly look.

Stephen's expression returned to all business. "Besides, safety is not the only reason you have to go out of town. I have a special mission for you. I need you to find someone for me. Don't approach him; just find him. I'll give you a number to call me on, hopefully that will be all, and you can come back as soon as this is over. Understand?"

"Not the reason why, but I'm guessing that you wouldn't want to tell me."

"Right."

"What's this man's name?"

Stephen took a deep breath and sighed. "Harry Vincent."

"Is he an agent?"

Stephen did not answer.

***

Susan Harding gasped as she read the message handed to her. Hurrying back to her office, she pulled out a small box, with several wires attached.

Hurrying to the transmitter on the roof, she fixed the box to the side, and switched it on.

She walked back inside.

***

Peter returned after a bit, with a box under his arm. "Victor said he'd pass the message on, and to wish us luck."

Stephen took the box, and opened it, pulling out various electronics. He next pulled the screwdriver from his toolbox, and began splicing wires together, attaching transmitters and microphones to what existed already. When he finished, there were several small transmitters attached to each other, and two extra view screens were powered up, with frequency diagrams displayed.

"Time?" Stephen asked.

"6:59. Thirty seconds remaining," Peter reported.

"MJ?"

"Finding frequency." She twisted dials and watched the frequencies.

"Charging transmitters," Stephen reported. "Time?"

"15 seconds," Peter, answered.

"Frequency found!" shouted Mary Jane suddenly. "Charging jammers!"

"Peter! Time!"

"5 seconds!"

Stephen slid behind the microphone and turned a dial. He signaled to Mary Jane. "Hit it!"

"Frequency jammed in three…two," she signaled silently to Stephen.

As Stephen spoke, Peter noticed that several random words were emphasized with The Shadow's voice. Peter quickly realized that the emphasized words made up a message:

"Good evening New York. This is a **_message to all_** those out there who are tired of greedy real estate **_agents_**. These **_criminals_** practically rob innocent buyers, and **_have_** **_compromised_** innocent people, and their way of life! It doesn't matter what you say to them, they just wont get the **_message_**, and these fat cats send your life right down the **_tubes_**! But tonight friends I'm here to tell you that you still have a chance! We at Percentage loans know what you need, and are willing to **_use_** any means to make it easier on you. There is a **_second_** possibility! We know how to work the **_system_** to your advantage. Call us any time! You can find us now in any good phone directory. **_Until_** then, if you would like more information, there will be **_further_** broadcasts. You'll be sure to **_notice_** our outlets everywhere, and we hope to see you soon. We now return you to your regular broadcast."

Stephen signaled to Mary Jane, who flipped a switch. "And you're off."

Stephen unplugged the microphone.

"You know something?" Peter suddenly said. "It just occurred to me that some Shadow adventures over the last seventy years would be great as radio shows. Think about it! Nobody ever sees you so why not make it a radio show?"

Stephen laughed and unplugged a lead. "This is how The Shadow delivered messages before the message tubes were set up. It's risky because someone else could intercept the message, but it works. The primary agents will have passed on word to hide the rings, and listen for that broadcast, and they would have known what to listen for. Any that haven't heard will be told by the primaries soon enough. The secondary system is a mixture of Morse code, word of mouth and hand to hand. It's slower, but it'll be safer."

"O.K.," said Peter. "Now what?"

"We begin planning for the final strike. Also, any non-essential agents should be planning to get out of town till this is over. It'll be safer for them that way."

Mary Jane noticed her cue immediately. "That includes me. I'll get home and pack."

"Peter, I want you to go with her, keep your spider sense open till she gets her things together. MJ, I'd feel better if you stay in a hotel until you leave. I'd be happy to pay for your travel and accommodations."

"Thank you, I appreciate that."

"I'll get you flight reservation for a safe place. Hopefully you'll be home soon."

Mary Jane nodded and Stephen handed her a manila folder labeled: Vincent. "This'll tell you what you need to do."

Mary Jane nodded one more time, and Peter followed her out of the Sanctum.

Chapter Four.

"The walls of Troy." Stephen murmured.

"Looks like it," answered Peter.

The two men were sitting in Moe's cab driving past the Kingpin's tower. The windows were tinted, and behind the windows were half a dozen cameras, all focused on the building, and particularly the lobby.

Moe drove past the tower, around the block out of sight, and when they got to that point, Moe doubled back to drive past again. As he drove, he hit a button on the dash board, and anyone observing the outside of the cab would have seen the license plate suddenly rotate, replacing the license plate with a new one.

"One more pass and then back to the Sanctum." Stephen ordered and Shrevnitz nodded.

"He's really buttoned that place up." Peter observed. "Those guards in the lobby must be seven feet tall easy."

"Each of them being searched routinely, entrants to the tower have to be buzzed in the front door by the clerk, all entrants immediately searched. The doors and windows on the ground floor have bars on the inside and I can see movement behind them. Still think somebody else is behind the recent agent attacks?"

Peter shook his head. "Nope. I'd say he's either expecting us, a door to door salesman, or the IRS is auditing him."

"It's not gonna be easy getting in there."

"The roof?" suggested Peter.

Stephen nodded. "Check it out." He pulled the cameras down. "We'll check these later. Shrevvy, find somewhere Peter can take the high-road, and then take me to the hall of records."

Shrevnitz nodded and hit the accelerator.

***

"It's not just the ground floor windows." Spiderman reported into his radio. "All the windows have bars. All except one: The big one in Kingpin's office. But you know something? He's still in there. He isn't unguarded. There's got to be about two dozen guards in there, and if they weren't wearing suits, I'd swear they were gorillas."

"Check the window edges. I refuse to believe that he's just left that window open for us." Stephen ordered back from the other end.

Spiderman fixed the window with the binoculars, and adjusted the focus lens. Sure enough, hair thin wires came into focus on the surface of the glass.

"There's some wires on the outside of the glass." he reported. "They're in a grid pattern."

Peter could almost hear his partner nod. "I'm betting he's electrified the glass, for any passing Spider to land on and fry." There was a pause. "And here's something interesting. The records and blueprints for the tower are missing."

"Kingy doesn't want anyone to find the back door." Spiderman observed. "The glass has had some modifications on the inside too. It's been shatter proofed and there are at least six layers of safety glass. We can't puncture that with a 45."

"Okay, try the roof."

Spiderman leapt from his perch and fired a web, bringing him closer to the rooftops. The tower had a spire on top, with platforms on all sides. What Spiderman saw as he grew closer made him gasp.

"They've sealed up the roof too. There's laser fencing on all the flat surfaces. What looks like electrical current through platform panels on the floors and walls? I can see some guard booths on the corners, and even what looks like a… oh wow."

"A what?"

"Get this! He's got an anti-aircraft gun up there!"

"Seems Kingpins through underestimating us." Stephen said in his typical unflappable tone.

"So…how do we-" Suddenly, Spiderman's spider-sense went wild, and he released the web line, dropping like a brick as something whistled past his head.

"Are you alright?" Stephen asked in concern.

"They have snipers on the roof too."

***

"The laser fencing puts out a lot of charge. It's on the perimeter where other measures won't work." Stephen explained, taking his partner through it step by step. "There's just as much charge on the window like we thought."

Peter looked in wonder at what looked like an infrared readout of the entire tower. "This accurate?"

"About half a second delay." Stephen answered smugly. "Now, here's the next problem." He panned the computer image upward. "Twelve guards on the rooftop, all of them with telescopic sights on the rifles. And you were right: it is an anti-aircraft gun. It even has it's own radar system, accurate for about a mile. The radar is a hard line feed to the gunner station. The only way to interfere with the signal would be to be physically at the cables. And that's not happening."

"Okay, so the roof is out. What else?"

"The walls are out for you. Pressure sensors are spread out invisibly. The heat sensors are the only reason we can tell they're there." Stephen hit a button, and the image switched to an ordinary camera. "In any case, it wont get you in. The windows are all sealed, and bars on the inside. Rebar frames. You could break through them, but it'll give you plenty of time to get shot."

"No back doors or anything?"

"There were, but they've been cemented over. There may be another way in, but I don't know where to find it. That leaves the front gate. All the bits we saw before, guards, security door, barred windows, but when I ran the video through the scanners, I got this." Stephen hit another button and pulled up the heat sensitive camera again. "There are more defenses we couldn't see through the door. There's night vision camera's, activated by remote, and all of them in a box made of bulletproof glass. Six cameras in all. There's also rolling cage doors at all the entrances and exits to that room."

"Marvelous." Spiderman said. "We go in, the camera's see us, even if one is invisible and the steel doors drop instantly, and big guys with guns come in."

"Right. What's more, the heat sensitive camera we're looking through can only detect the exterior-most part of the building. Everything further inside than the first corridor is invisible, so we still don't know the layout. But if you look carefully, you can see forms moving through the halls, and pausing in regular intervals for several seconds."

"Keypads?" Peter guessed.

"Every sixty or so feet through the halls. Guards on every corner. The keypads control a laser barrier at every junction. Same for the stairwell, and of course cameras in every elevator. I think he even has the cables rigged in the elevators. Pick proof locks on the doors I can see with the cameras. And finally, the piece de resistance, there are weapon emplacements on the ceilings. The cameras follow the targets, and the guns start shooting. The emplacements are at the hallway junctions on every other floor."

"Where's he getting all the juice?" Peter asked in disbelief. "The amount of power in this security…"

"He's got some kind of generator in there," Stephen agreed. "Somewhere in the center of the building. It has to be a separate power source."

"There's one more thing." Peter said quietly. "Assuming we get through the roof without getting fried until we glow, then shot in the dark, or maybe going through the door we cant open, and past the cameras we cant break or fool, and past the steel cage doors we cant block or break, and past the guards with IQ's lower than their caliber of their machine guns, and past the locks we cant pick, and past the laser fences we cant shut down, and through the keypads we don't know the code to, and past the staircases we cant sneak through, and past the elevators that would cause us to plummet to our deaths, and through the maze of hallways we don't know the path through, and through the guards in Kingpin's office; what happens when we finally get there? We cant just rough him up and expect to send him out into the world a productive citizen. And the records we have cant be used as evidence without exposing us too. Not to mention the fact that Kingpin's very good at disappearing information. So once we've got him…what I'm saying is…do we deal with him…"

"Permanently?" Stephen supplied. "I'd be incredibly tempted. But despite all the things I may have done to my enemies in the past, I still feel that lethal force should be the final option. To that end, we'll do what we have to do. But- most of the time at least- death isn't justice. Not even for Kingpin. I want to take him alive."

"Great." Said Peter seriously. "But he no doubt has as many people in law enforcement as you do. Without some pretty substantial proof, he'll be on the street within minutes of going into the big house."  


"Yep." Stephen said with surreal calm.

"So…you _do_ have a plan around all this right?"

The only answer was a calm, "Not yet."

"So, what do we do now?"

Stephen sighed. "We have to know what else we may be facing in there. At the very least we have to find where all these systems are controlled from."

"Well, our man inside the tower isn't talking, probably cant risk it…" suddenly, he paled. "Stephen…only two agents have ever known the layout of Kingpin's tower. One of them is inside right now, the other is…"

Stephen nodded and let out a breath. "Harry Vincent."

Just then, there was a buzzing sound. It was not Burbank's signal.

"What's that?" Peter asked.

"The outside phone line." Stephen answered, pushing a button on his console. "Hello?"

"Stephen? It's me." Mary Jane's voice answered. "I found Vincent."

Peter felt as though reality had shifted, and then suddenly realized what it meant. He looked at the wary but understanding look on Stephen's face, and suddenly realized the true intent behind Stephen's chat with Mary Jane. But even knowing the stakes, Peter felt certain disbelief at the simple message. 

"Good work MJ." Stephen answered. "I have a message for you to deliver to him." Peter almost saw Stephen choke on the words. "Tell him, after the code words, and explaining the current situation, that we need him back, and that I need his help, and that if he can pull this off, all is forgiven."

Peter looked on in disbelief.

Mary Jane could hear the struggle in Stephen's voice too. "Stephen...is there something about this guy I don't know?"

The Shadow's mirthless laugh rang out. "Oh yeah, I'd say so."

Another silence over the phone line. "Is there something I _should _know?"

Stephen clearly did not want to talk, so Peter spoke up. "MJ, Vincent was...a traitor. He was working deep cover for Kingpin, and Kingpin figured out that he worked for Stephen. In exchange for his family's lives, Vincent turned him over to Kingpin. Later, he was excommunicated. No agent has spoken to him for almost sixteen months now."

"A traitor." Mary Jane said in quiet disbelief.

"Yeah. That was my reaction too." Peter said.

Mary Jane was silent for a long moment. "Are you sure you want to do this Stephen?"

"I was going to ask the same thing." Peter admitted.

Stephen took a deep breath and nodded. "Guys, Forgiveness is one of the hardest things for people like me to give. And to earn. But as the wise man once put it: Every man pays a price for Redemption. This is his."

"Then I'll deliver the message." Mary Jane said, and the phone connection cut.

"Every time I think I've got you figured out, you pull something like this." Peter said with a small grin.

Stephen did not respond, but Peter could tell of the conflict going on within that amazingly quick mind.

The sanctum was silent for a while. 

"Kingpin will notice Vincent in town." Peter said suddenly. "He'll know that you called him back."

"He wont be looking, he knows about our falling out. Besides, he's got everything he's got aimed toward fortifying that tower." Stephen said. 

"Stephen, there's been a lot of changes to that place since he left."

"Yeah, but mainly to the outside. Besides, he was inside for a while. Probably got a lot of information that he never needed to pass on."

Another long uncomfortable silence.

"Since the agent attacks have stopped, what do you think Kingpin's offensive tactics will be?" Peter asked quietly.

"Oh, he'll keep looking for agents. They'll just be harder to find. He's not fighting New York. Just us. He's trying to get us angry. Trying to make us attack before we're ready."

"Are we ready?"

"With the agent attacks slowing, we have more time. His assassin will keep looking, and he'll keep waiting for us to come after him on his home turf. Which reminds me, we'll have to take on the assassin before Kingpin."

Another long silence.

"If we don't attack, he'll be coming after us next wont he?" Peter asked quietly.

"Yeah."

Peter sighed. "I never thought it would come to this."

"Me neither."

Chapter Five.

Beth Vincent answered the knock at the door to the beautiful young redhead. "I'm sorry, whatever you're selling we aren't interested."

"Harry Vincent?" The woman asked.

Beth blinked. "One moment."

***

Mary Jane took a breath to calm her nerves. She had no idea how Vincent would react to this. She had no idea what to do if he refused.

The door opened again. A reasonably respectable-looking man was at the door, Mary Jane recognized him as Harry Vincent, Beth by his side. "Yes? Do I know you?" Harry asked.

Mary Jane fished her girasol ring from inside her pocket. "The sun is shining."

Beth gasped and put a hand to her mouth. Harry's eyes bugged out and he took a step back. Both of them stared at the ring in her hand for what felt like an eternity.

"But the ice is slippery." Vincent whispered finally.

Mary Jane sighed. "Harry, we need your help."

***

"No.No...no. There! That's him!" Moe said.

Stephen put aside the stack of photos and studied the one that Moe had selected. "A loathsome mercenary with all the moral fiber of a piranha named Wallace Kagan, who doubles as one of Kingpins lieutenants."

"Address?" Peter asked.

"He has a place near Central Park. But he's usually out on whatever assignments the highest bidder gives him."

"Well, maybe we can get some clues there?"

"I sure hope so." Stephen said wearily, leaning back into the cab's seats. "We really need a break."

Peter didn't miss the exhaustion in his partner's frame. "When was the last time you slept?"

Stephen checked his watch. "About 32 hours ago. I've gone a lot longer than that though. Tumo's and determination, not to mention a few years of experience can keep me going. No, I'm tired because I've hit a wall. Peter, I couldn't tell anyone else this, but for once, I don't have the slightest clue what to do."

Just then, the sound of a cell phone ended conversation.

Stephen pulled out his cell phone and looked at the screen. "It's the Sanctum line." he reported and opened the drawer beneath his seat. Pushing aside his costume, Stephen collected a small box, with a phone hookup. He flipped the phone open and set it face down on the interface, then hit a button on the side. There was an electronic buzz.

"Descrambler." Stephen explained to Peter's questioning look.

The interface answered the phone, and a small two-way speakerphone crackled to life. "Stephen?"

"Mary Jane." Stephen answered. "Did you deliver the message and explain the situation?"

"I did." She reported. "He was surprised to say the least."

Stephen had a faint grin. "Is he willing to help?"

"Are you kidding? He wants to put me in his will!"

Stephen laughed. "Okay then. I need him back in New York immediately. You want to come with him or stay there till this is over?"

"Well, I would like to come back. I think Vincent's convinced that if he lets me out of his sight the offer will be withdrawn. Unless there's a particular reason you need me here?"

"Okay then, things should be reasonably safe once the assassin is caught, and we've just identified him."

"Way to go." She paused for a moment. "Let me just say that I can understand why he did it Stephen, he cares about his family, and I'm sure that if it was your family under the gun, you'd probably react the same-"

"MJ," Peter, Moe and Stephen interrupted at the same time.

"Yes?" She asked, startled.

Stephen took a deep breath. "It is _so _important to your future that you _not _make that comparison right now okay?"

Mary Jane caught the warning tone. "Okay... um...See you soon."

The line disconnected.

"So," Moe said. "Vincent's return to New York City."

"It wont be a ticker tape parade, but it'll be interesting." Stephen admitted.

"And uh, _who _and _how _exactly are you going to meet him?" Peter couldn't help but ask.

Stephen answered the only way a Shadow could.

With a mysterious spooky laugh.

***

Harry Vincent just couldn't help staring out the window at the city below. This was where his life had spiraled into nothingness, given meaning again, where he'd met his wife, raised his family, made a difference, then lost it all once more. And maybe, just maybe, where he'd get it all back.

"Hey." Mary Jane interrupted his reverie. "You ready for this?"

Vincent looked back at the city and grinned. "I've been wanting to do this for a year and a half now."

Mary Jane argued with herself briefly. "Before we land…I wanted to ask you…"

"Why?" supplied Vincent. He sighed. "It was my family. My own flesh and blood. Miss Watson, since the day I was married, I had never gone a day without waking up to my wife's face, and the sound of my children's laughter downstairs. I made promises to two people, and they were in conflict. I had to make a choice. And I was damned no matter which way I went. A blade to my son's throat helped make up my mind. And when it was all over, I had to face the consequences. I knew that I would, I made the choice with my eyes open. Not to mention that my wife is an agent too, which I didn't know at the time. She just started talking civilly to me again a few months ago. I never expected to be coming back to New York."

"Well, everyone gets a second chance eventually." Mary Jane assured him.

Vincent nodded gratefully. "Maybe if The Shadow had family he'd understand more."

Mary Jane wasnt so certain. "Maybe."

***

At the baggage collection, Vincent stepped forward to collect his bag, and Mary Jane suddenly felt someone behind her, she tilted her head just enough to get a look out of the side of her eye, and was relieved to see Peter just behind her.

"Don't turn around." He whispered. "Welcome home."

"Thanks." She whispered back. "What do I do with Vincent?"

"Moe's cab is waiting outside." Peter explained. "It's the third cab on you left when you exit. You leave him there. He takes a ride, and I give you a lift back to your apartment."

Mary Jane nodded. "Can I ask...what was that thing about 'not making the comparison'?"

"Stephen's an orphan." Peter said finally. "His parents _were _under the gun once, as bait for The Shadow, they didnt make it. He was five years old at the time."

"Oh my G-" Mary Jane whispered in shock. 

"Yeah." said Peter quietly.

"And I..." Mary Jane whispered in horror.

"Yeah. Dont worry MJ, he's not angry, he just didnt need to be reminded of that just now, you know? That's the end of it."

Mary Jane nodded sadly. "Where do I meet you?"

"Around the left side of this terminal there's a fire escape to the roof. I meet you there; your bags will be taken care of. When was the last time I took you swinging around the city?"

Mary Jane grinned hugely, her blunder forgotten at once. "Years ago, at The Unity Fair. First time I ever met Spiderman."

"It still beats taking the subway." He chuckled softly in her ear.

Mary Jane smiled in anticipation as he moved away.

***

People in New York City would often be willing to kill for a taxicab, even more so when standing outside the airport. Which is why when Mary Jane and Vincent walked straight from the door to a waiting taxi, there were glares of pure hatred thrown their way.

Vincent slid into the cab and moved over to allow Mary Jane entry, when the door suddenly slammed itself shut and the car pulled away.

**__**

"Hello Harry."

"Ahhh!" Vincent yelped and spun to see The Shadow suddenly resolve into visibility.

**__**

"It's been a while." The Shadow said softly.

"It sure has b-" Harry caught himself quickly.

The Shadow quickly saw Vincent's problem. **_"Harry, lets settle this right now. I'm willing to wipe the slate clean, you'll have to work to earn my respect again, but all will be forgiven. Are you in?"_**

"Of course I am." Vincent responded without hesitation.

The Shadow regarded him a moment, then took out a girasol ring, and slipped it onto Harry's finger. **_"Welcome back."_**

***

Spiderman landed lightly in the apartment through the window, Mary Jane in his arms.

"I'd forgotten how cool that was." She said happily. 

Spiderman pulled of his mask. "Been a while since I've had a passenger."

Mary Jane smiled at him. "I never thanked you the first time you saved my life."

"You made up for it the second time I saved your life." Peter responded.

Both of them laughed at the memory.

"You were right. I _do_ have a knack for getting in trouble. Do I get to say thank you _this_ time?" she asked, coming over to him.

Peter leaned forward. Their lips almost touched.

There was a knock at the door.

"Argh!" Peter growled.

Mary Jane covered her eyes and laughed. "I wonder who that could be?"

"You have to ask?" Peter complained as he answered the door. Standing outside was of course, Stephen Cranston.

"What the hell could you possibly want?" he snapped.

Stephen looked at peter in surprise. "Didn't we do this once already?" he asked, giving his partner the once over. "Do you always answer the door wearing that?"

Peter suddenly realized that he was still wearing his costume, except for the mask. "Well I knew it would be you. Who else has the most-"

"Breathtakingly inconvenient sense of timing that I have." Stephen finished, coming in. "We have done this before. Hi MJ, welcome home."

__

He seemes to have forgotten the whole blunder, thought Mary Jane. "Hi Stephen. Coffee?" she offered.

"Thank you. Make it strong."

That settled, Mary Jane forgot about it herself and headed into the kitchen.

Peter shut the door and sat down. "Where's Vincent?"

"At the Jonas office. He's going over our records of Kingpin's tower. There have been a lot of changes since he was there, but most of the basic internal structure is the same. He's adding the details. I told him that I'd be back later tonight. There's another problem to take care of in the meantime."

"The assassin?" Mary Jane guessed as she handed Stephen the coffee mug.

"Right. There have been…" Suddenly, Stephen stopped, and looked at the two of them. "I wasn't interrupting anything just then was I?" he asked pointing at the door behind him.

Peter and Mary Jane shared a look. "No." they said at once.

Stephen looked at them both for a moment more. "Okay. There have been three more attacks since I sent out the last general order. Kingpin's obviously identified a few by name. But with the vast majority either out of town or unidentifiable, we should be okay for a while. Now, Kagan Wallace. He's staying at a hotel on the west side, and does his killing during the night. He spends most of the day, and early evening, at the movies, a few museums, and has dinner at a jazz club near his hotel. Vincent has confirmed that Kagan is one of Kingpin's higher lieutenants, and is working to set up an empire of his own by making connections and gaining favors. Vincent is certain that Wallace would have surveillance on his room, so we cant get to him there."

"The other places he goes are public places." Peter pointed out. "If we make a move there, we may as well send up a flare for Kingpin, that we know who his assassin is."

"He'll know anyway when his man fails to report in. But that doesn't matter. I'm not worried about Kingpin finding out we caught his man; I'm worried about what happens when we take him down. We cant just burst in and pull him out of a crowded room by his collar. Innocent people will be hurt, not to mention that it'll completely destroy our cover."

For a moment, the three turned the problem over in their heads.

"We need to draw him someplace where we wont be seen?" Mary Jane asked.

"We?" Peter asked sharply.

"Yes that's right." Stephen said over him.

"I have an idea." Mary Jane said.

Chapter Six.

"You think this is a reasonable plan or just suicidal?" Spiderman asked.

**__**

"It was her plan, it's a good one, and she's an agent. Admit it, if it were anyone else, you wouldn't be asking. Your problem isn't with the plan, it's with the bait." The Shadow responded.

Spiderman thought that over. "Yeah."

**__**

"And she wont be going in alone, she has us for backup."

"And there's no way in hell I'm letting anything happen."

**__**

"And it wont be until tonight." Finished The Shadow.

"Right."

The Shadow led the way into the Jonas office, where Vincent was hunched over a desk.

**__**

"Vincent, what have you got for us?"

"Kingpins system isn't the least accessible on the planet, but it comes close." Harry said. "He's had all these security modifications in planning for years, but never had a reason to implement them. When Kingpin came to power, he was engaged in a pretty vicious power struggle, and designed that whole tower as a keep, a siege tower. It has its own generators, which can keep the power going for months without requiring a recharge from an outside source, so you cant cut the power. Water is the same. He has huge stores in the basement of water, and even a small purification system. It can't handle much more than that tower puts out, but cutting off the water supply won't work. You can't wait him out."

**__**

"Does anything get in or out?"

"Some supplies that he cant synthesize and messages by courier so that they can't be traced. The supply lines go through some underground passages, which connect into the sewer system. Chances are he'd have sealed most of them by now, and the rest of it will be monitored by infrared."

The Shadow let out a breath. **_"What about the security controls? I can't believe that he'd let all this be automated."_**

"The actual devices are run from the generator room, and are protected by a very clever encryption system that nobody has ever been able to crack. No doubt the codes have been changed since I was there, and I never got them anyway. I don't know who has access, but I can tell you that the code is clever because it has 5 sections to it, each of them for a different security device, and each of them changes, separate from the rest of the code, on a twelve hour cycle. There is no way to tap into the computers, you have to be at the terminal."

**__**

"Who has access to the code key? Can anyone override?"

"The Kingpin set up the code himself, he's the only one who knows the pattern, and he briefs only who he chooses." Vincent explained. "There are two places where the override code can be entered: One of them at Kingpin's private terminal, and the other in the security center, in the generator room. Now, here's the only weakness. The generator rooms, and the office, have had the gun emplacements in place before, and it almost killed the Kingpin. Another insider, years ago, got control of one of the consoles and tried to shoot kingpin with his own defenses. So security was switched to keep people outside those two rooms. If you can get in, you can work okay once you get past the guards, but getting in is next to impossible, and there's enough guards between the two rooms to occupy Paris. You'd have better luck breaking into a nuclear missile silo, and nuking the tower."

"How much can you remember about the inside?" Spiderman asked.

"I can get you locations and floors of pretty much everything important, but the hallways themselves are a nightmare, it works on a grid pattern, and is designed as a labyrinth to confuse opponents trying to find their way through. Now, the generators are in the center of the building, to maximize output, and the Kingpin has a private escape route in his office, that can only fit one person."

The Shadow nodded. **_"Thanks Harry, this has been most helpful. Head back to your old place, you'll find everything you'll need there. Once this is over, you and your family are welcome to come back to New York."_**

Vincent stood, and bowed his head. "Thank you."

The Shadow shook the man's hand firmly, and headed out.

***

Peter and Stephen headed toward their condo building in Moe's cab, going over details for the night's mission.

"Piano or drums?" Stephen asked.

"Drums." Peter answered reluctantly. "Unless you can play piano?"

Stephen shook his head. "I already got the job at the bar."

"Lucky you."

Stephen nodded. "Tell me, is it a prerequisite that all parents must subject their children to piano lessons they hate?"

"My Aunt may tried that too, you know what I did?" Peter answered. "I pounded the keys fast and random, then thanked her for letting me learn to play so wonderfully."

Stephen laughed. "I should have thought of that. How did she respond?"

Peter grinned craftily. "She sold the piano and bought me a chemistry set."

Boom!

Stephen and Peter looked up in amazement to see smoke curling out from their condos near the top of the building.

"I was wondering when the assassin would get around to us." Stephen said calmly.

"Do you think others were hurt?" Peter asked in concern.

"Not a chance. Too many people killed in one place would create a citywide search. Remember, he's fighting us, not New York. Kingpin doesn't want the manhunt to come back to him. Look at the damage. Lots of smoke coming from our windows, but hardly any structural damage."

"We have to get this guy tonight." Peter said.

"We're going to get this guy tonight." Stephen agreed with finality.

***

The bar was dimly lit, and curtains of smoke hung in the air. The music was understated, and the chairs were plush but stained. The bar was the center of the room, and the tables were small and round. Regulars could have noticed that the bartender and drummer were new, but they didn't really care. The alcohol was hard and cheap, and the waitresses rarely stayed longer than a week. Just like any number of bars around the country.

"Any sign of him?" The man behind the bar asked quietly into a microphone in his collar.

The new drummer on the stage shook his head as he played. "Not yet Stephen, and May I just point out that it's a good thing I have rhythm." He answered his earpiece.

"Noted." The Stephen commented from behind the bar.

"I would like to say that I can tell why waitresses never hang around here." Mary Jane said quietly. "Look at this uniform!"

"It's more of a leotard actually." Peter quipped.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Mary Jane said.

"No he isn't." Stephen broke in. "He's too worried that Kagan will try to kill you before the song he's drumming ends."

The trio fell silent. Peter kept drumming, Stephen mixed drinks, and Mary Jane delivered them.

Mary Jane brought her next round of orders to the bar, where Stephen collected them. "Any sign?"

"He's not sitting at the bar, and he's not making song requests of the band." Stephen answered. "Check the tables again. He may not be here yet."

Mary Jane nodded and took the tray of glasses away.

Stephen mixed a Manhattan. "Peter, we have to mix some of these for the Sanctum."

Peter laughed. "You know Stephen, rumor has it that Kingpin has a case of eighty year old scotch somewhere in that tower. We win this fight let's split it?"

"Deal."

"Guys." Mary Jane broke in. "Kagan just walked in."

Stephen looked up. "Yep. Go take his order."

Peter drummed just a bit faster, and the band followed his rhythm.

"Peter." Stephen cautioned. 

Peter returned to normal speed. Mary Jane collected Kagan's order and took it to the bar. "He takes his gin straight up."

Stephen nodded and poured the drink. "So, this is the first mission plan you've come up with. How's it feel to call the shots?"

"I'm more than a little scared and I'm wondering if I could have done something differently in a way that would prevent my knees from shaking." Mary Jane admitted.

Stephen handed her the drink. "Welcome to command."

Mary Jane took the drink over to Kagan and held it out to him. Kagan smiled at her, took her in appreciatively, and reached for his glass. As he did, Mary Jane turned her hand a bit toward him, and their fingers brushed as he took it from her.

His fingers brushed her girasol ring.

Kagan instantly saw the huge opal.

"He's taken the bait Peter." Stephen reported.

The song finished and peter headed backstage.

As Mary Jane started to head away, Kagan grabbed her arm.

Stephen noticed and reached casually under the bar for his gun.

Kagan whispered to Mary Jane. "Tell your boss I have a deal for him."

Mary Jane was shocked into speaking. "What?"

"Tell The Shadow I can hand him kingpin on a platter, but I need to speak to him, and I have conditions." Kagan clarified.

"Move away, no commitment." Stephen directed.

Mary Jane shook his arm off. "Excuse me. I have a phone call to make."

Kagan nodded. "I'm not going anywhere."

He didn't even watch as she walked away.

"Peter are you hearing this?" She asked.

"I am and I think it's a trap!" he said bluntly.

"None of his other attacks have had the slightest kind of duplicity or misdirection." Stephen pointed out.

"He's not trying to trap MJ, he's trying to trap _you_!" Peter returned.

"What if he's genuine?" Mary Jane asked as she reached the bar, Stephen leaned forward and both kept their faces casual.

"Then he may be our way in. Lord knows there's no other way I can find." Stephen answered.

"Wait a minute! We're considering this?" Peter shouted from backstage. "That guy is a killer! How do we do deals with him?"

"First of all Peter, we're wearing earpieces, so you really don't have to shout. Secondly, which would you rather? Kagan or Kingpin?"

There was silence from Peter.

"Do we have to make that choice?" Mary Jane asked suddenly. "Why can't we take them both? Get what we can from one to take the other and then come back for him."

Stephen looked impressed. "That's a leadership decision. What do you think Pete? Sounds good to me."

Peter sighed. "Let's hear what he has to say. He looks at us cross-eyed and I'm taking his head off."

Stephen nodded to Mary Jane. "The alleyway we were going to lead him into."

Mary Jane headed back to Kagan. "We're listening. The alleyway around the corner. Now."

Kagan nodded and stood to leave. Stephen left the bar; Mary Jane headed for the service entrance and met Peter on the way.

"Well," Peter said. "This should be interesting."

***

Mary Jane shivered and pulled her jacket tighter around her. Casting a quick look around, she noticed a disembodied shadow on the wall nearby, in an unobtrusive place. The shadow gave her thumbs up.

She smiled and looked above her, where a form was concealing itself in the darkness underneath a fire escape. The figure moved slightly into the light, nodded, and pulled back into his hiding place.

Feeling as personally protected as anyone could be, Mary Jane turned back to the mouth of the alley and waited.

A few minutes later, Kagan rounded the corner, and approached Mary Jane, his hand on an all too apparent hidden gun. "I have a message for your boss."

The sound of a throat clearing made Kagan spin, an enormous gun pointed squarely at his face.

Kagan looked past the enormous gun to the man holding it, and nearly fell over as he looked into the burning eyes.

**__**

"Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you right now." The Shadow hissed.

Kagan composed himself. "Because I can give you the Kingpin. I can get you in the tower."

The Shadow did not move. **_"How?"_**

"I know where the supplies that cannot be created in the tower are sent in. You can sneak in through the crates."

**__**

"Keep talking." The Shadow said as Spiderman slowly scaled into a better position.

Kagan smiled. "The Kingpin has tunnels that work off the sewer system. They stretch for a thousand yards using the sewers as entrances and exits to the hidden tunnels to the tower. You can hide in the crates. I have the authority to walk the crates all the way in, from the first checkpoint. They wont be searched. That will get you in the door. If you can get to the security controls, I will even give you the access code. You can get into his records; you can control all the security in the building. Kingpin will belong to you. That's game, set and match."

"Why?" Mary Jane couldn't help asking.

Kagan's face twisted in rage. "Because I am sick of that fat blowhard taking credit for everything I do. I should be in charge of that place by now, but there's no way that will happen while…" Kagan broke off suddenly, and calmed himself down. "Office politics. Nothing to concern you."

**__**

"You don't trust us." The Shadow observed.

"Of course not. When you're making the attack, I will be on a Cessna heading south of the border."

**__**

"That's your only price?" The Shadow laughed, not believing it for a moment.

"Not just that." Kagan said warily. "I want half Kingpin's operations, and, once I'm in Mexico, you keep yourself from attacking my operations."

The Shadow was silent. He was thinking of the deal. Kingpin in exchange for Kagan. The biggest crime lord in history, in exchange for a normal strength, untouchable one. Doing a deal with a killer to knock the madman off the throne, only to put the killer in his place.

It was a deal with the Devil.

**__**

"Deal." He said softly. **_"How do I contact you when we are ready to move?"_**

Kagan gave them an email address. "Of course, once we are done, this deal can never get out."

The Shadow nodded slightly, and Kagan walked out of the alley.

No sooner was he gone than Spiderman dove to the ground, and got in The Shadow's face. "You aren't seriously planning on working with that monster are you? He's killed more than a dozen agents, and you're going to make him a millionaire in return? Are you insane?"

**__**

"It's the only way." The Shadow said calmly, pushing Spiderman out of the way.

"You think you can take them both?" Mary Jane asked.

**__**

"I know I can."

"You are actually doing a deal with him. I do not believe it. Since when have we made deals with killers and criminals?"

**__**

"I don't have time for this." The Shadow said. **_"I have orders to give."_**

"Well pardon me." Spiderman said sarcastically. "If you'd listen to your partner more than your arrogance-" Suddenly, Spiderman shut himself up.

The Shadow turned to face him. **_"Mary Jane? Take a walk. This is about to become a personal matter."_**

Mary Jane looked between them and hurried out of the alleyway.

**__**

"Now you listen Peter." The Shadow said calmly. **_"Do not think for one second that I don't consider you my equal. Do not think for one second that I don't trust you beyond life itself. Do not think for one second that if I don't do exactly what you think I should, it means I don't respect you. There are five agents Peter, whom I use as advisors, and those agents have the greatest respect of myself, and every agent in existence. You are at the top of a very short list. All those agents and myself agree, that there is no way into that Tower. Kagan has given us one. If I act more like your leader than your partner, that's because lives depend on the choices I make. I have made choices that kept some agents alive, and killed a dozen others. As a result, I trust very few people, and I allow myself to get close to fewer still. Despite that Peter, you have become like a brother to me, and if it seems like I'm ticked at you, it's because you're my friend Dammit, and no matter what happens, nothing's going to change that, but at the end of the day, I will still be the one making those life and death choices. You don't like this plan? That's fine. Give me another plan that will work and I will go ventilate Kagan right now. Do you see any other option?"_**

Spiderman looked down. "No."

The Shadow nodded. **_"I thought not. But I have one now. All the pieces have come together. And in return, I will have to rely on you more in the next few days than I ever have before."_**

Spiderman looked up in amazement. "You have a plan already?"

The Shadow nodded again. **_"We can solve all the problems in one go. But it will all rely on you." _**He extended his hand. **_"Can I count on you?"_**

"Absolutely." Spiderman stood straight, and shook his partner's hand. "So? What's the plan?"

The Shadow told him.

Spiderman looked at his partner carefully. "You sure you want to do this?"

The Shadow nodded. **_"The only way."_**

"I just figured you'd want me to…"

**__**

"No. I dont have the same strength in the type of combat we're talking about. It will only work with you in the lead. And besides, what kind of partner would I be if I didn't let you get to Kingpin first?"

Spiderman smiled beneath his mask. "Thank you."

**__**

"Come on, we have work to do."

***

Kagan sat in his hotel room, with every light switched on. In his hand was the phone. "Kingpin?" he said into the phone. "I have met the Shadow. He's in. Yes. He seemed to believe me. We have to time this carefully. The next shipment into the tower can't be searched. I know. Don't worry. It'll never get into the tower, and they'll have to clean the Shadow off the walls with a sponge."

Kagan shared a laugh with the man on the other side of the line. "Yes sir. Goodbye boss."

After hanging up the phone, he pulled out a cell phone. "It's me. Yep. Both sides believed me. The plan is working perfectly. In a few days, we'll both be rich, and Kingpin will be dead or in jail. Talk to you."

Kagan hung up the phone and smiled broadly. Everything was going according to his design.

Chapter Seven.

"At sundown the crates are taken by our people. Under Kagan's authority they will skip the checkpoints without being searched, and be taken to the building. They have to be taken the last hundred yards into the building by different guards, and this is when it all gets real interesting. If Kingpin smells a rat, the crates will be checked, and it's over. If not, the crates get taken into the building." Stephen explained, tracing the plan over a blueprint of the hidden tunnels, and the tower. Around the table was Peter, Victor Cranston, and Mary Jane.

"There'll be a lot of guards between security control and Kingpins office." Mary Jane pointed out.

"Two things can help us there." Victor said. "One: We can send in a strike team on he ground floor once the security controls are breached. Two: Once we have security control, we can use everything from those steel cages to the gun emplacements."

"Which we'll use to keep a clear path through to the office. After that, it's just the guards in the way and the ones in the office." Stephen finished. "I already have a strike team assembled and briefed."

"What about Kagan?" Victor asked finally.

"He'll be on a plane to Mexico once the crates get collected by our people. He can't be seen near them, or the Kingpin will know he's been sold out." Peter said.

"We have Kingpin to focus on. Leave Kagan out of your minds when attacking the tower." Stephen advised.

Everyone nodded.

"Any questions?" Stephen asked after a long silence. There were none. "Then lets go to work."

Stephen walked quickly up the stairs, toward the door. But when he got there, he paused, turned, and looked at the Sanctum.

Victor and Mary Jane saw the look at once, and concerned looks crossed their faces.

Stephen gave Peter a small nod and marched out of the Sanctum.

"Peter." Mary Jane said suddenly. "He wasn't looking at The Sanctum, he was saying goodbye to it."

"Yes." Peter whispered.

"Peter, he's stormed fortresses before." Victor said. "Why is this time different? Why does Stephen think he may not come back this time?"

Peter did not answer.

***

Checkpoints underground were rotten as permanent duty, because of the enclosed space, and the smell of being close to the sewer.

Despite this, the guards had not relaxed their vigilance once since coming on duty. Which is why, when the ninth crate came down the tunnel. The guards all immediately, rose their weapons.

The two men carrying the crate set it down. it was large and tall, and no doubt heavy.

One of the carriers stepped toward the guards. "Food shipment."

The guard nodded and holstered his gun. "We have to search the crate."

"Kagan Wallace Okayed it to go through." The man next to the crate objected. 

The guard was not impressed. "And that's fine for speeding it through the rest of the checkpoints. But this is the perimeter. We have to search it before it gets inside our lines of defense."

The carrier nodded, and moved aside, as one of the guards moved toward the crate.

Nobody noticed as the first carrier sprayed a puff of vapor into the remaining guard at the checkpoint.

But they certainly noticed as he immediately convulsed and collapsed, groaning unintelligibly in pain.

Two of the guards who had left to search the box ran back to their fallen comrade. Both of them were suddenly talking at once.

"I think he's choking..."

"Call it in to the..."

"Get something to put under his head."

"We have to get him above ground so we can call an ambulance."

Only one guard remained at the crate, who suddenly collapsed as the final carrier drifted closer to the distracted guard and rammed a tazer into his side!

The standing guards saw the second man fall and realized in an instant what had happened.

The carrier who had stepped aside spun, a gun in his hand.

Two quick shots, muffled by a silencer.

The guards slumped. Both carriers moved like lightning, snapping up a key chain on each belt, and turning them in locks on either side of the door in unison.

The door hummed open, and the men grabbed the crate roughly, rushing it through the tunnel.

The next checkpoint came up quickly.

"Hold it." the new guard said. "We have to search the crate before you pass."

"It was searched at the perimeter." The carrier said. "Kagan Wallace gave it the go ahead."

Two of the guards shared a look. "Okay." one of them said finally. "Go ahead."

The crate was ushered through the checkpoint, on it's journey toward the Kingpin's tower.

***

Kingpin looked out his window, directly down to the street below, and called his aide to his side. "Look down there. What do you see?"

Right Arm looked down and shrugged. "The street."

Kingpin laughed. "Right. And beneath it, is the tunnel that brings in supplies. There is a crate coming in now. And in it, will be victory! Victory! At long last, The Shadow has miscalculated! He is trying to smuggle himself in through those tunnels, in one of those crates." He laughed victoriously. "At long last! I have The Shadow at my mercy! Trapped! Vulnerable!"

Right Arm looked shocked.

Kingpin pulled back his sleeve. "Any moment now." He said, looking at his watch.

***

The carriers deposited the box at the final checkpoint.

"You cannot come any closer to the Tower. We'll take it the rest of the way in." The guard said firmly, lifting up his infrared goggles.

The two carriers nodded and walked back the way they had come.

One of the guards gave the other a significant look, and nodded.

The second guard pulled out a large box and fixed it to the side of the crate.

Moments later, both guards hurried out of the checkpoint room as blast proof doors came down.

***

Kingpin looked down and counted silently with his watch, when an explosion that blew the manhole covers off for a block around shook the street. A bolt of flame exploded upward.

"Boom!" Kingpin cheered. "Goodbye Shadow! Goodbye Spiderman! HAHAHA!"

Chapter Eight.

The fireball slowly settled, as the smoke rose higher into the air.

Right Arm was openly gaping at the scene below, and The Kingpin was reaching for a bottle of champagne.

Just then, over the receding rumble of the explosion, there rose a distant sound. Strange and familiar.

The kingpin did not seem to hear it. "Right arm, would you be good enough to get those sniveling cowards that rule the other crime families on the phone, and let them know that The Shadow, and Spiderman are no longer…a…problem…"

Suddenly, out the view of the enormous window a helicopter, far into the distance, came into view. Sleek and jet back, with weapons bristling on each side.

It was headed their way.

***

In the helicopter cockpit, hidden behind the pilot gear, Victor Cranston tightened his grip on the controls, and spoke into his microphone. "Spider? I'm on my way. Hit it."

***

On the side of a building, just across the street from the Kingpin's tower, Spiderman--alive and well--scaled his way into a good firing position. Pulling the ungainly weight upward, Spiderman aimed a rocket launcher at the roof.

***

One of the snipers tore his gaze from the approaching helicopter, when something metallic glinted before him. Looking down, he saw Spiderman aiming a huge weapon at the roof.

Saw the weapon fire.

"INCOMING!" he screamed.

Several of the men dove to the floor, where they could, the electric current working against them suddenly.

The screaming rocket arched high above the anti aircraft weapon and exploded. The sky suddenly bright and painful to look at.

With the rocket past them, the snipers were up and firing at Spiderman instantly, but he was already two blocks away on the end of a web.

The helicopter bore down on them.

"Shoot it down!" The sniper shouted into his headset.

***

Less than fifteen feet away, the gunner in the control booth looked down at his radar in panic. "I can't get a lock!"

Horrified, he looked up at the sky, where the rocket had detonated, and left behind metallic shrapnel, reflecting and fluttering like aluminum foil in the light. With a shock, the gunner realized: these metal strips were reflecting the radar! The gun had to be aimed manually until the metal strips finally fell.

Too late.

The helicopter flew toward them, and hovered fifty feet from the edge of the roof. The six barreled machine gun mounted on the front swung to aim at the anti aircraft gun.

"Run!" screamed the gunner.

Men scattered in all directions as fire exploded from the gun on the helicopter, spitting a lethal rain into the roof, tearing it apart completely.

***

Spiderman spun around between swings, and worked his way closer to the Kingpin's tower again.

"Roof gun is down!" Victor shouted through the earpiece beneath his mask. "Ready?"

"Open the door for me Victor." Laughed Spiderman.

The helicopter hovered lower, lower, even with the middle of the building.

A missile blasted forward from the helicopter, into the wall of the building.

BOOOM!

A hole had been ripped through the wall, smoke bleeding into the air.

Spiderman hurtled himself closer, watching as the scattered guards in the building struggled to raise themselves from the concussion.

With a shrill war cry, Spiderman swung through the hole in the wall, smashing into the nearest guard.

A shrill warning from his spider sense hurled him to the side as a burst of gunfire split the air.

A swift spin and a shot of webbing to nail the door shut.

All of it without thought. Spiderman suddenly moving on automatic, the only thought on his mind was the realization that this was it! He was finally getting to Kingpin!

With a sudden flourish, the fight was over.

Spiderman looked around in amazement. He had penetrated the holiest of holies. He was in Kingpin's security room.

Leaping forward with all his enhanced speed, Spiderman dove at the nearest computer panel, and started typing in the code Kagan had given them.

With a beep, Spiderman was in.

Typing again, Spiderman started to disable the security systems, and activate some of the others.

Spiderman grinned and turned back to the door.

BAM!

Spiderman started and took a step back. This was not expected. His Spider sense told him there were guards on the other side of the door; a lot of guards.

BAM!

Biting his lip, Spiderman shouted into his microphone. "Victor? Where are you?"

"Heading south." Victor answered. "Why?"

"I can't get to kingpin's office from the inside." Spiderman explained. "I need an elevator."

"On my way."

Spiderman waited for the helicopter to return, as the webbing holding the door shut weakened further.

***

Near the top of the building, Kingpin looked in horror at the security monitors. "He's supposed to be dead! Where's his partner? Was only one of them in the crate?"

Right Arm looked at the monitors. "He's typing!"

Suddenly, the lights dimmed, and the distant sound of alarms ringing me their ears.

Kingpin nearly fainted. "They know the code! They've shut us down!" He hit his intercom. "All available guards to my office immediately."

On the monitors the men watched as security gates slammed shut along almost all the hallways, cutting off the guards rushing to obey.

"Oh no." Kingpin whispered.

***

BAM!

For a moment, Spiderman considered attacking the men as they came in the door. He tossed the thought aside instantly. Too many guards in too confined a space to maneuver. The bad guys only had to aim the right way once.

BAM! The door blew open, and the guards came boiling in. All of them had automatic machine guns.

Unable to wait any longer, Spiderman leaped out the breach in the wall in a neat swan dive.

The drumming of a helicopter filled his ears, and with a grin of relief, Spiderman fired a web line, directly into its undercarriage.

With the guards in the building rushing to shoot at the helicopter, the sleek aircraft spun and flew wildly around the far side of the building.

"Kingpin's office!" Spiderman shouted into his mike over the roar of the rotors.

***

On the ground, out the front of the besieged building, A familiar cab driven by Moe Shrevnitz screeched to a halt, and out jumped half a dozen people, all of them hidden beneath ski masks.

And leading them: The Shadow.

One of the attackers opened the trunk quickly and pulled out a bazooka.

At a gesture from The Shadow, the man spun and fired at the front door.

BOOM! The door erupted inward.

Before the smoke had even settled, the team had rushed into the lobby, weapons drawn and ready.

With a quick shot, The Shadow blasted the lock on the security gate, and pulled it open.

The security measures did not even try to stop them.

"Looks like Spiderman did his job." One of the masked attackers whispered to The Shadow.

The Shadow nodded, and led the way deeper into the building, as if he had been there for years.

***

A dozen guards had rallied to The Kingpin's side, while the large man watched his own demise unfolding.

"There's the Shadow." Whispered Right Arm.

The Kingpin started typing madly on his keyboard, trying to security get control back. "I can get it, but I'll need a few minutes."

Just then, the roar of the helicopter blades filled the room.

"I don't think we have them." Right Arm said simply.

Rising into view like a bat from hell, the black helicopter hovered before the window, and trained its cannon on it.

"DOWN!" shouted Kingpin, and everyone in the room scattered.

Bullets pounded brutally into the glass, splintering the outer face of it, but the multiple layers of bulletproof glass held up to the onslaught.

Shhh-ew! BOOOM!

A missile blasted the narrow distance between the window and the helicopter, exploding glass shrapnel into the room.

Kingpin had taken cover from the blast behind his desk with Right Arm and three guards, the rest of them struggling to remain awake.

Kingpin drew a large, gun, and looked out the window.

Sitting calmly on the side, a strange weapon in hand was Spiderman.

He pointed the weapon in the window as the helicopter turned sideways in front of it. He pulled the trigger.

A canister arched into the room, trailing smoke. The concussed guards groaned and fainted as it approached them. The others with Kingpin held their breath desperately, working toward a cabinet full of gas masks. Spiderman fired another canister into the room.

One of the guards stumbled toward the window, drawing a bead on the helicopter. He fired a spray of bullets into the side.

Spiderman fired another canister, which hit the gunman in the face, knocking him painfully down, just as a spray exploded out of the bullet punched fuel tank. 

"Spiderman?" Victor shouted. "He hit the fuel line. I got to set this thing down somewhere!"

"Go!" Spiderman answered, dropping from the side of the helicopter, and firing a web line to the wall just above Kingpin's window, swinging in the hole again, stretching himself out to avoid the sparking ends of the electric wires on the sides.

He landed lightly, adjusted the breathing mask over his usual mask, and leapt forward, firing off as many canisters as he could, disappearing into the smoke.

***

Victor fought madly as the controls in his hand took a life of its own.

Suddenly, in front of him, the Empire State building loomed in his path.

With a shout, Victor yanked the control stick as far to the right as he possibly could, and the helicopter swung back into the canyon between skyscrapers.

Alarms and buzzers shouted a warning on all sides as fuel drained from the system.

"Got to find a place to land." Victor shouted to himself.

***

The Shadow gestured silently and his team followed just as quietly to the next corner in the corridor.

Slipping around the corner, each person aimed there gun and took up defensive positions like a well-trained militia.

Suddenly, a surge of guards came around the next bend, straight into the attacking team. Wasting no time on surprise, both side's doves for defensive positions and began exchanging fire.

***

Firing wildly into the mist, one of the guards strayed out into the room looking through the penetrating fog for Spiderman.

There was a rustle of sound. The Guard spun too late as Spiderman reached out and yanked the gun from his hand, and pulled the mask from his face.

Kingpin heard the sound of another man falling, and whispered directions into the man's ear. The two of them crawled across the floor, toward the climate control, and turned up the dials.

Huge vents opened in the ceiling, and started sucking air up, creating a strong wind from the break in the window.

The room cleared, and left standing, Was Spiderman, Right Arm, two guards, and Kingpin.

"KILL HIM!" shouted Kingpin.

The guards leapt forward.

Spiderman didn't even move.

BLAM! BLAM!

The guards were cut down by two loud gunshots.

Everyone spun toward the door, and standing there, six people at his side, Was The Shadow.

The people surrounded Kingpin and Right Arm, weapons apparent. The Shadow looked at his partner, and made a '_after you'_ gesture.

Spiderman smiled. The Shadow was letting him have this victory. "You lose." He told Kingpin.

***

Victor clawed wildly at the controls and pulled it back sharply, pulling up at the last moment. Finally spotting a landing site, he directed the controls toward it, the helicopter shaking uncontrollably as the last drops of fuel gave out. 

The helicopter pitched forward.

Victor grabbed the straps around him and braced himself.

Already moving low and slow, the helicopter smashed into the roof of the Flatiron building, with far less force than it could have, but it was clear that the powerful craft would never fly again.

Victor painfully shook off the blows to his body from the crash. "I have got to give myself a raise." He grumbled.

Sirens sounded, down the street. _Uh-oh._ Victor thought. _Time to go._

***

"HOW DID YOU DO IT?" Kingpin raged at The Shadow. "I had it all planned out. I knew you could blast your way it. But I would have beaten you! You were supposed to be in that crate! Even if you weren't, how did you get the code? HOW DID YOU DO IT?"

"Kagan gave us the code." Spiderman said calmly.

"KAGAN!" screamed kingpin. "He was supposed to give you a false code! He was supposed to get you into the crate and-" suddenly Kingpin realized. "I am betrayed."

Just then, there was a beeping sound.

"What's that?" Spiderman asked.

"The videophone line." Kingpin said unenthusiastically, the fight drained from him. 

"You'll want to take that call." Spiderman advised. "Which button?"

Kingpin gave him a look, and pointed at the button on his chair.

The Shadow walked over to the chair, sat in it calmly, and pushed the control.

The kingpin's massive view screen came to life, and Kagan's smiling face filled it.

Chapter Nine.

At an altitude of 15,000 feet, watching the screen benevolently, seeing only kingpin's face, was Kagan, a bottle of champagne in his hand. Popping the cork, Kagan poured himself a glass. "Kingpin, I thought you'd like to join me in a toast." He raised the glass. "To the new Kingpin on crime. Me!"

"I swear: I will kill you." Kingpin growled.

"I think not. You see, I have the access codes, and improvised a little connection to my laptop here. I'm emailing all of your budget reports, and company memos to the FBI. That'll be enough to get you in jail for your next three lifetimes. And I of course have carefully left my name out of it."

"You will be the first one I mention." Kingpin warned.

"Nobody believes the guilty, Fisk." Kagan laughed. "Besides, with a large amount of your fortune waiting for me in Rio, the police cant touch me, and I'll be sitting on a beach earning twenty percent until things cool off."

"That's if the cops get me." Kingpin said.

"They wont get the chance. Because see, I also took the liberty of adding a nice cable hack to your self-destruct countermeasures. They'll be reading your rights to your corpse."

Just then, the camera zoomed out of Kingpin's close-up, and took in the whole room, revealing Spiderman and the gunman surrounding Kingpin, and The Shadow on his throne manipulating the picture controls.

Kagan dropped the glass. "YOURE ALIVE! NO!"

"You think we believed you Kagan? Of course you wanted us dead. The kingpin too, but you think we would have believed you were working in good faith?" Spiderman taunted.

"But even you two cant stay alive long enough to get the code typed in at Kingpin's office!"

"They came in the wall at the security center." Kingpin said listlessly.

"Really?" Kagan laughed. "I would have liked to see that. But it doesn't matter. The building will be a pile of debris in three minutes, though you can no doubt escape in time, you cannot get to me before I make my name and establish myself. There's going to be some chaos in New York aster Kingpin falls, and you will have to deal with that first." He looked calm, until a thought struck him. "Wait. The plans to Kingpin's tower were taken from the hall of records years ago. I never told you where the generator room was. I never even told you that you could input the code there. How did you find the right place to strike, and get to Kingpin's office in this short an amount of time?"

The Shadow slowly stood, looked Kagan straight in the eye, and pulled off his hat and cloak. The mask fell to join them revealing…

Harry Vincent!

__

"VINCENT!" shouted Kagan and Kingpin at once in disbelief.

"Then where's The Shadow?" blurted Kagan, just as the lights in the plane switched off!

From the rear of the plane came a figure etched in darkness, drinking in the sudden wave of fear like the finest wine, issuing an insane laugh that taunted the plane's passengers mercilessly.

It was the triumph laugh of The Shadow!

***

Everyone gaped at the sudden spectacle on the video screen.

The Kingpin gaped just a little less.

With a blur of movement, he had grabbed the gun from the hand of the Harry Vincent, and drove an elbow into his face.

With a speed far beyond his bulk should have let him, he spun and pointed it at Spiderman.

A scream from his Spider sense told Spiderman to jump.

Everyone whipped around and pointed their guns at kingpin.

The timer on the view screen said that there was only two and a half minutes left.

"We can stay in this dead lock for only a few minutes Kingpin." Spiderman warned, the sounds of combat coming through the view screen microphone.

"I have nothing to lose." Kingpin said calmly.

For a long moment, nobody even breathed.

Then Right Arm drew a concealed gun and shot the Kingpin in the wrist.

"Ah!" shouted Kingpin in pain, looking incredously at Right Arm.

Right Arm grinned. "I quit." he said, moving to stand next to Spiderman.

Spiderman smiled but didnt cheer. "Come on Shadow." he whispered to the viewscreen. "Cancel the blast, save my life."

***

As The Shadow's laugh reached the cockpit, the guard in the cockpit threw the door open, gun drawn.

"NO!" shouted Kagan. "You'll depressurize us!"

The man dropped the gun, and pulled out a Billy club, edging forward slowly toward his opponent.

The Shadow holstered his automatics, and vanished into nothingness, the mocking sinister laugh echoing from every corner.

Kagan jumped back to his computer, and drew out a flare from a side compartment. Igniting it quickly, he tossed it to his guard, and started typing the destruct code.

The flickering light of the flare showed a formless mass of cloudy black, The Shadow. The guard dropped his Billy club and pulled out a stabbing knife with a set of brass knuckles for the handle.

The Shadow jumped toward Kagan, and pulled him by the throat away from the computer, when the guard swung the flare at his face.

Jumping back reflexively from the sudden bright light, The Shadow stumbled into the plane seats across the narrow aisle, confounded by the small space.

The guard jumped at his opponent, who lashed back with a fierce kick to the stomach.

As the guard reeled, The Shadow reached across the aisle again toward the computer, just as Kagan tossed it toward the back of the airplane. It clattered into the aisle.

With a growl, the Shadow reached for him, when the guard composed himself and grabbed The Shadow from behind and swung his blade.

The Shadow caught the knife hand, and forced it away from his face, his forearm the only thing keeping him alive.

Kagan was picking up his computer. "Too late Shadow! The code has been sent."

Kagan ran into the rear of the plane, as The Shadow pushed himself back as hard as he could, knocking both him, and his opponent into the rows of chairs.

Fighting his way free of the tangle, The Shadow laughed again and delivered a blow, shattering the man's nose to pieces.

As the man roared in pain, The Shadow gave a quick chop to his throat.

Gasping for air, the man fell unconscious.

The Shadow ran toward the cockpit, only to find the controls on automatic. Apparently the guard had doubled as the pilot.

The Shadow ran to the rear of the plane, where Kagan had his computer in hand.

"Too late again." Kagan said. "You'll never crack the disable code for the explosives in time, and you can only do it from this computer."

The Shadow drew a gun. **_"Tell me the code!"_**

"Nope. This computer will tell the bombs to blow in twelve seconds. There's nothing you can do!"

Without hesitation, The Shadow fired his .45, blasting apart the laptop in his hand.

***

In kingpin's office, there was a sudden jump as the timer on the view screen bleeped and disappeared.

Guards around him jumped from the slight distraction again, and the Kingpin smashed one across the face with an immense fist. Kingpin had just enough time to hit a red button on the arm of his huge chair, before a burst of webbing pulled him back.

The countdown resumed, and everyone froze. A computerized voice sounded. "Evacuate immediately. Detonation sequence has commenced. Two minutes till detonation."

Everyone froze, and suddenly seemed to center on Spiderman.

And Spiderman was frozen between two thoughts. _I can get Kingpin!_ Was one thought, _I have to get the agents out of here_, was the other.

And suddenly, Spiderman understood the burden of command put on his partner day after day.

"Everybody out!" he shouted.

The agents nodded and ran for the door.

Except for one, who stayed near Spiderman just long enough to whisper in his ear. "Don't stay too long Tiger."

Spiderman looked at her sharply, noticing for the first time a curl of red hair poking out from under the mask. She finally ran to join Vincent and the others.

But kingpin and Spiderman stayed looking at each other.

"Well." Kingpin said at last. "Here we are."

"Indeed." Spiderman answered. "I'm sure you have a way out."

"I do."

"I'm going to make sure you don't use it." Spiderman said simply.

Regarding each other after years of trading insults and threats, trying ploys and stratagems to knock the other down, both knew that it had lead them here.

Kingpin ran forward with a huge punch.

"Warning" The computer voice said. "One minute to detonation."

***

Horrified at the destruction of his laptop/detonator, Kagan drew his gun, mirroring The Shadow.

Both diving to the side, they both pulled the triggers at once.

Both shots missed, and one of them punched a hole in the side of the wall.

A howling wind filled the cabin, whipping The Shadow's cloak around him.

Kagan and the Shadow both stared at the hole in the wall. Kagan moved first, ripping open the supply cabinet, and firing his gun wildly into the parachutes, pulling one out safely fro himself..

The Shadow leapt forward, grabbed Kagan by the throat.

Too late.

The pressure building up around the breach became too great, and the plane tore itself apart.

The Shadow and Kagan were sucked out into the atmosphere.

***

Spiderman punched Kingpin in the stomach, and weaved to the side just in time to avoid his weaving hands.

Both men had a huge strength born of hatred, and the knowledge that this fight was what stood between them and ultimate victory over their rival.

Spiderman kicked his enemy toward a wall, and then fired one impact web over each hand, tying him to the wall, as he moved in, delivering the heaviest punches he possibly could into his stomach.

With Herculean effort, kingpin pulled himself away from the wall, tearing the webbing loose.

With a roar of anger, Kingpin attacked again.

***

Spiraling out of control toward the ground, The Shadow and Kagan locked in a vicious struggle while they fell.

The Shadow gave a right cross that send them both spinning, his hat vanishing away, his cloak like a bat's wings, the single parachute in Kagan's hand almost doing the same.

Kagan grabbed hold and tried to toss the Shadow aside.

The Shadow managed to reverse the hold and struck Kagan with the heel of his hand, ramming it straight into his face.

Kagan passed out as the blow to his jaw struck home.

The Shadow wasted no time on a victory celebration, wrestling the parachute out of his grip, The Shadow pushed away from kagan.

The ground came ever closer, leaping toward them eagerly.

The wind began to burn at The Shadow's face, the speeds making him dizzy. The Shadow pulled the shoulder straps over his arms, tying the ends of the belt together, the speeds too fast to do anything more.

Pulling the cord, the parachute opened, and _got tangled in his cloak._

***

Kingpin reached out and caught Spiderman around the head, between his huge hands, and swung him, slamming the much smaller man into the desk, the floor, and the walls.

As he moved to swing again, Spiderman lashed out with his legs, and grabbed the wall with his feet. Using his spider-like grip, he pulled them both closer to the wall, and then sprung off it, somersaulting backwards over Kingpin's shoulders pulling himself free of the smothering grip.

Scampering away as kingpin moved in again, the computer voice spoke. "Forty seconds to detonation."

***

With a cry of disbelief and fear, The Shadow clawed madly at the cloak around his shoulders, finally getting it free.

The ground now close enough for The Shadow to make out individual features, The Shadow pulled the emergency cord.

The emergency chute opened, and jerked The Shadow so hard that his head snapped forward, and then back. The Shadow prayed the straps would hold.

Kagan fell past like a bullet before The Shadow could react.

Now only fifty feet above the ground, with heavily wooded terrain beneath him, The Shadow pulled on the parachute cords, aiming toward the only visible road, drifting comfortably down.

***

With a savage grunt, Spiderman lashed out with one foot, and smashed it into the Kingpin's kneecap.

With a roar of pain, the immense man fell forward.

Spiderman rolled to the side quickly.

The timer was at fifteen seconds!

Kingpin was not moving.

Spiderman was torn. Here was his opponent, his ultimate enemy, Defenseless, at his mercy. He could finish it!

__

He's already beaten. Anything more is murder. He's lost his empire. He probably won't survive the explosion. Spiderman told himself. _You don't have time to argue here._

With an angry growl, Spiderman ran for the window, leaping out the breach.

As soon as he was gone, The Kingpin was up and hobbling toward his private escape elevator to the underground.

The fight had weakened him, and he was almost crawling, the few feet to his way out seeming an eternity.

***

The Shadow shrugged off the parachute and immediately scanned in every direction for Kagan. There was no sign of him. He had been falling at far beyond terminal velocity, and The Shadow was not going to go looking for a corpse. If Kagan had somehow survived, The Shadow would know soon.

Shrugging off the mask, holsters and coat, The Shadow once again became Stephen Cranston.

Walking down the road toward a diner he had seen from the sky, Stephen grinned, then smiled broadly, giving into a chuckle, and finally, a full-throated laugh of sinister mirth.

***

Spiderman had swung halfway down the block when the explosion hit him.

It was not a massive explosion, nor a burst of white light that left fire in its wake. This was a controlled explosion, like a professional wrecking job, charges that spouted flame and smoke, shattering windows around the small blasts.

Slowly the tower collapsed into the ground, imploding upon itself, taking with it, what may have been the greatest empire in criminal history.

Chapter Eleven.

"I dont know if he got out in time." Peter siad.

Mary jane smiled at him. "You're cute when you worry. Now cut it out."

Peter sat down. "You know, I think about Kingpin being defeated, and I find that I cant quite wrap my brain around the fact."

"You did really well." Mary Jane assured him, giving him a sudden, but lingering kiss.

There was a knock on the door.

"He's getting slow." Peter chuckled as they broke for air.

Mary Jane asnwered the door. Standing in the Hallway was Stephen Cranston and his uncle.

Stephen made no move to come in. "Am I interrupting _this _time?"

Mary Jane laughed and waved them both in.

"Peter!" Stephen laughed. "You did it man! How's it feel to be the hero of the hour on every front page of every newspaper in the western world?"

"Really?" Peter said in disbelief, as Stephen handed him a stack of newspapers. "Wow. Oh by the way, how did the fight go with Kagan?"

"Like something out of a James Bond movie." Stephen admitted.

Victor produced two bottles of champagne like a magician with a dissapearing coin. "I hereby declare this party started."

As he went off to find glasses, Peter turned to Stephen. "I think I should tell you, I dont know if Kingpin got out in time too. I dont think so, but there's always that wildcard."

Victor started pouring drinks, as Stephen reassured his partner. "Doesnt matter. You did a fantastic job as a leader. You delayed the bad guy as long as you could, you got theagents out in time, and you didnt get dead. Congratulations."

Peter shook Stephen's hand. "You could have told me that you put MJ on the strike team."

"I didnt. She volunteered." Stephen said. "Get this: It turns out that all Kingpin's records were sent to the FBI, local police, NSA, Interpol, and that's just the shortlist. The cops got there just in time to round up all the people running out of Kingpin's building. Not to mention the rest of the crime families, who have put a bounty so big on his head, that every hunter on the continent is looking for him. Add that to us. He's finished."

Everyone cheered at this pronouncement. Mary Jane broke the silence next. "Who sent all that information? We didnt get _all _of that did we?"

"Nope." Stephen smiled, accepting the glass from his uncle. "Kagan sent it all. And he sent the records Kingpin ordered destroyed. The ones about the operations we shut down to, wait for it, the rest of the crime lords, which started this whole thing."

"And we won!" Victor exulted. "So, I would like to propose a toast, to the amazing, absolutely heroic actions of Spiderman."

Everyone cheered and toasted Peter.

Peter raised his glass again. "And I would like to propose a toast, to the clever...What the Hell...absolutely _ingenious _plan of The Shadow."

Everyone cheered and toasted Stephen.

Stephen refilled his glass and passed the bottle around. "And I'll propope a quick toast, to both Harry Vincent, back in New York and loving it, and to the staff at the Military combat base fifteen miles outside of New York on the mainland, who are still trying to figure out how an Apache helicopter dissapeared from right under their noses."

Everyone laughed heartily and toasted again.

Mary Jane lifted her glass. "Let's not forget of course, Kingpin himself, whose sensless act allowed for this whole proceding to take place. We need a special toast for him."

"Something sentimental." Peter decided.

"Something hearfelt." Victor added.

Mary Jane thought for several moments and raised her glass higher. "Goodbye Tubby."

Everyone threw back their heads and downed their glasses in one shot.

Everyone looked at each other, and started to grin, then chuckle, and finally cheered and laughed in joyus victory.

The End.

Or is it?


End file.

Shadow, Adventure, Drama